What would bring me to the need of mounting a painting to board?

I have become partial to painting on pre-primed unstretched canvas. It allows me the flexibility to paint whatever size I want, not worrying whether or not I have the correct size on hand, freedom to crop mid-painting and a sense of detachment that allows the creative process to flow better.

You can buy pre-primed canvas by the foot or in rolls at good art supply stores. When you need a specific size, cut it off the roll along with an inch or so to either side, tape the canvas to a ridged support and start painting. Much more cost effective than buying stretched canvas. In fact an 11×14″ piece of primed canvas comes to about $1.25 and a stretched 11×14″ canvas costs about $6.50.

The only down size is that the finished piece needs to either be stretched onto stretcher bars or mounted to a ridged support. I have a previous video on mounting a painting onto stretchers on my YoutTube channel but from my experience it takes more time than it’s worth. Mounting a painting to board or even a cradled panel is much easier and quicker than stretching. Laziness wins once again.

With that I made a video describing how I go about mounting the finished painting on loose canvas to a board, in this case a cradled panel. It is a straight forward process that only involves a painting, a board, PVA glue, a spreader and some weights. It is a really easy process.